Attended Grading – Starting A Session

Attended Grading – Starting A Session

Once you have started to master the art of color grading there is another huge area of our job that you’ll need to focus on and thats working attended. Working with clients in the room from the very first time you touch a primary right up until you hit render isn’t for everyone. Unfortunately grading at its highest level involves a lot of attended grading and its something I have to do on all jobs.

When I grade a large budget commercial I can have up to 12 or 15 people in the room and if I’m nervous, hesitate or panic when the going gets tough then the clients will instantly recognise it and the session will be come a train wreck. So I’m going to kick off a new series based on working in an attended environment.

The scary part about working attended from the start is the client watches every single decision, node, window and qualifier and can see every step of your though process. My advices is RELAX! keep things simple and enjoy the collaborative process rather than having a you verses them process. This collaboration on new jobs everyday is what gets me out of bed every single morning and why I have never ever called in sick to work. I love the combination of making new friends, pushing myself creatively and the excitement of performing with a room full of people is addictive.

Beginning a attended grade is normally the hardest part. If you know the director or DOP it’s a lot easier but most of the time I have a room full of strangers that all know each other sit down in my room and it’s my job to get the ball rolling.